1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to tools for musical instruments, specifically to an improved tuning tool for drums.
2. Background of the Invention
Drums are one of the oldest and most popular of the musical instruments. A drum is normally comprised of a shell and a membrane. The membrane is struck, causing vibrations throughout itself and the shell, and sound is created. Typically, the tighter a membrane is stretched over the shell, the higher the pitch it will emit. The looser the membrane is allowed to hang on the shell, the lower the pitch it will emit. Traditionally the membrane was made of animal skin and was fastened to the shell of the drum with rope. However, over the years, drummers in need of versatility have made adaptations to the traditional system.
In a modern system, the membrane, now referred to as a drumhead, is attached to a ring-like rim that is connected in several places to tightening screws that in turn are threadedly connected to mountings on the shell. Turning these screws, which are at different locations on the rim, varies the tension of the drumhead. Changing the tension of the drumhead ultimately produces different effects on the sound produced by the drum. Sometimes, each screw has a turning handle of its own which is a part of that screw. But more often, because of the number of tuning screws on a drum, perhaps a dozen or more, the tuning screws end in a usually square-shaped head with which a drum-tuning key is used. The drum-tuning key usually has a square-shaped socket to match the square-shaped cross section of the tuning screw head. The drum-tuning key is slid onto the tuning screw head, the key is turned to turn the screw, and the key is removed.
Drummers commonly need these drum-tuning keys in the practical everyday use of their drums. Typically, a drummer may need to tune the drums on a regular basis. Additionally, drum-tuning keys are used not only to tune the drums, but also to adjust much of the hardware associated with the normal use of drums. A stand is necessary to hold and support a drummer's instruments, such as one or more cymbals and/or drums, and is a common example of such hardware.
Hardware is typically made from metal, with various handles for adjusting the height and lengths suiting a particular drummer's tastes. However, often that hardware also uses additional fasteners in order to secure its positioning. These additional fasteners, sometimes called memory locks, ensure the normal user that the hardware will always be in the same position. These additional fasteners normally do not have handles for adjustment, but rather use screws that are similar in shape to tuning screws. They each have a head, which is usually square in cross-section and which is usually fastened using the tuning socket of a drum-tuning key. Therefore, as with tuning a drum, a drum-tuning key is necessary to adjust these additional fasteners. Only after a drum-tuning key properly adjusts these additional fasteners will the hardware finally be set to a preferred state for the user.
Traditionally, drum-tuning keys are small and are kept separate from a drummer's hardware. However, these keys are easily lost because of their small size and the transient nature of their use.
In the past, other inventors have attempted to make the drum key readily accessible so that it may not be so easily lost. The most popular solution fastened the drum key to the normal everyday key chain of its user, by providing a small hole though the drum-tuning key through which an ordinary key ring might fit. However, it proves to be bulky and awkward to use a drum-tuning key with everyday house and car keys attached.
U.S. design patent D407,895 offered an alternative system for fastening the drum-tuning key to an everyday key chain. A key-ring-attached harness was created from which the drum-tuning key may be removed, so that the user may free the drum key from the everyday key chain while using the key.
However, both solutions have their additional disadvantages,
(a) It is awkward to have the drum-tuning key attached to the key ring at all times during the ordinary use of house and car keys.
(b) The everyday key chain may not be readily accessible during a performance. For example, a female drummer may keep keys in a purse, which is not usually carried on stage.
(c) Constantly removing the everyday house and car keys from one's bag or pocket just so the drum-tuning key may be used promotes the casual loss of those other keys.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,418 created a different solution. A clip is attached to the drum key so that the drum key may be fastened to any existing tubular hardware surrounding the drummer. This device has disadvantages,
(a) The drum key must ultimately be removed from wherever it is temporarily fastened because it is likely to fall off while it is stored inside a drum travel case. The clip-like connection is not strong enough to resist the pressure caused by the other hardware next to which it is stored.
(b) The clip-like appendage, which is attached to the drum key, makes the shape of the drum key awkward, unusual, and sometimes uncomfortable for the user to hold during normal tuning use.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,942 to Henrit created a solution, other than my own, in which the drum-tuning key is also used as a cymbal fastener. Screw threading was added to the inside walls of the female square tuning socket. Before Henrit, the square tuning socket on a conventional tuning key was only used to receive the square-headed tuning screw. In Henrit, the tuning socket may be also be screwed onto a round male bolt-like rod using screw threads (i.e. onto a threaded rod forming part of a cymbal stand) in addition to being slidably fastened to a square-headed male tuning screw.
However, a device according to Henrit's patent has disadvantages,
(a) Because the female threads are added to the inside of the square female tuning key socket, they must undergo the stress that is normally exerted on the socket while the Henrit device is being used as a drum-tuning key. Any torque applied to the key has a tendency to damage the threads over time, ultimately rendering them useless. Therefore, the use of the Henrit device as a drum-tuning key would probably lessen its functionality as a cymbal holder on the cymbal stands by ruining the screw threads.
(b) In order for the Henrit device to work, the dimensions of the square female tuning socket and the round screw-like object that enters the socket must be very similar in their dimensions. Therefore, any alternative screw-like object whose diameter is too great or too small in comparison to the tuning socket could not be accommodated since the threads of the square tuning socket must be able to thread onto the round screw-like object. This causes a problem largely because the diameter of most contemporary cymbal rods (round bolt-like objects) is 8 millimeters (0.31 inch), which is larger than the 6 millimeter rods formerly in common use. Since the female tuning socket of the Henrit device is only approximately a ¼ inch (0.25 inch) wide, the diameter of the contemporary cymbal rod 8 millimeter (0.31 inch) is actually larger than the tuning socket. Therefore, the male 8 millimeter (0.31 inch) cymbal rod is too large and will not fit inside of the female ¼ inch (0.25 inch) tuning socket while leaving enough unthreaded surface inside the socket to effectively act as a tuning key. These common modern cymbal rods make it difficult to use this older device. Most modem threaded cymbal rods are commercially made with an 8 millimeter diameter, with the usual variations due to manufacturing tolerances. The square heads on modem drum tuning screws are usually made with a quarter-inch dimension on each side of the square, with the usual variations due to manufacturing tolerances.
(c) The depth of the Henrit tuning socket taken from measurements of the patent drawings is approximately half an inch. This tuning socket is also threaded to receive the threaded cymbal rod. However, many or most commercial cymbal rods contain an unthreaded nib at the top of the rod, which is approximately a quarter-inch long. Therefore, the Henrit threaded socket would only be attached to the cymbal rod for the length of a quarter inch after the threaded cymbal rod enters the female tuning socket. The first quarter inch of the threaded socket would not attach itself to the cymbal rod because of the unthreaded quarter-inch nib. This would usually provide a connection which not sturdy, approximating only a quarter inch of threading. If during a performance a drumstick were to strike that type of tuning key and cymbal holder, it might easily detach itself from the cymbal stand.
(d) The Henrit prior art combination device sits above the cymbal in an upright “T” manner where the handle of the device awkwardly protrudes atop the center of the cymbal, creating an obstruction in the immediate playing surface surrounding the device. Therefore, by invading the performer's playing area, it may be a nuisance to the performer.
(e) Since the tuning key socket has a square cross section and the threaded cymbal rod has a circular cross section, the fastening system must necessarily be adjusted in order for the Henrit device to be workable. The threads inside the square-shaped tuning socket are made so as not to be continuous. This is because an item with a circular cross section can not fit perfectly inside of a square hole. Therefore, only part of Henrit's square-shaped tuning socket attaches itself via threads to the threaded rod of a cymbal stand. This may not provide the most secure connection between the tool and the rod of a cymbal stand since the rod is not secured in all directions by the square tuning socket. Thus, the use of the Henrit device as a combination drum-tuning key and cymbal fastener would probably lessen its effectiveness as a cymbal fastener.